MAGIC, MIRACLES AND YOU:

The Popularity of Magic

Magic seems to be a word that draws the interest of people just by mentioning it. This is especially true of our children and young people. The word seems to instantly

convey to them excitement it is romantic, and highly desirable. But are we wise in indulging this attitude? Is this veritable deluge of Fantasy and ‘Magic’ these days

really as harmless or innocent as most people like tobelieve?

Now we all know that many things with a perfectly natural explanation seem like magic to people who have never seen or

heard of them before - i.e. a isolated tribal person being

confronted with technology, but we are not referring to that here; in this discussion, we mean to

deal with the concept that certain objects, words, potions, hand motions etc. can cause certain

unexplainable, unnatural powerful happenings to take place automatically when the ‘magician’ practices his ‘arts’.

History of Magic

Where was the first ‘Magic’ talked about in our world? Why it was when the serpent talked and revealed to Eve, the mother of us all, the ‘magic powers’ to be found in a certain ‘magic fruit’ that was on the ‘magic tree’. Why even the name of that tree seemed to sparkle with

interest and wonderful promise of secrets to be explored: "The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil".

Eve could not doubt the evidence of her senses- here right before her eyes she sees a talking snake; obviously magic of the highest and best kind. He assures her that

the ‘Magic’ in him is to be found in that wonderful magical fruit. The very suggestion of some hidden mystical powerthat she knew nothing about was extremely tantalizing to

our first mother, and is it any less so with us today?

I want to ask a blunt question right here; was there any special power in that fruit? Now some people who really

know nothing of the ways of God still try to echo the serpent’s lie and say, yes, there was power in the fruit and it was good that Eve and later her husband Adam ate it-otherwise the human race would never have developed in

mind or understanding, and that the serpent was our friend to break us out of the grasp of a selfish, overbearing God.

But the truth of the matter is that Adam and Eve were created by God with the ability to learn and develop forever, there was no limit to the heights of attainment they could

reach but first they had to be tested to prove whether they would remain

true to God.

The easiest test was given them, just stay away from one tree- they had hundreds, yea thousands, but God just said,

“Obey me and don’t eat of this one tree.” There was no ‘magic’ in this fruit. There was no special virtue in the tree.

Who made the serpent speak? It was Satan who spoke through the attractive beast. There was no ‘magic’ in either the serpent or the fruit. What were we dealing with here? Merely a question of ‘who is God in your life? Who are you

going to believe and obey?

When Eve ate the fruit, she felt an excitement, she seemed to be

reaching a higher plain of existence, and she became ‘enlightened’ as the Eastern Gurus and ‘masters’ would

tell you. But what was it really?

It was the combination of the hypnotic suggestion of Satan on her mind, and the effect he could produce by playing on her nervous system and mind once she had through her disobedience removed herself from the sheltering protection of God. God does not play

games with the minds, emotions and nervous systems of His subjects; Satan does, big time! This is his stock in trade. Where God deals in reality, truth, practical things of everyday living; Satan deals with

fantasy, the unreal, the intangible, and the nebulous.

His whole repertoire is feelings, impulses, emotions, imagination; he tells you a lie and then gets you to believe it by playing with your feelings and senses in ways that you think are legitimate but are

really only trickery.

What Eve felt was false feelings Satan placed on her and also the strange alluring influence of evil, the sort of

excitement that comes with rebellion; vague and unexplainable but deadly if yielded to. There was no ‘Magic’

only a lie and hypnotic mind control from Satan.

Why do we want Magic?

I have to tell you that, sadly, the desire for ‘magic’ didn’t end with Eve and her sad disillusionment. No, indeed; every generation has had those seeking for ‘hidden secrets’ believing that some

special signs, symbols, or words could set off automatic reactions causing powerful and wonderful results. Or that certain mixtures of substances drank or eaten would cause great power or other changes; or that nature had hidden resources of power

in stones, trees, or fountains that would cause sudden and wonderful things for those with the special knowledge of how to

use them.

There have always been people who found it useful to give to others the idea that they had knowledge of strange and mystical arts and thus excite the fear and admiration of the ordinary man; sort of the world’s earliest ‘con game’. But let’s face it, if nothing ever happened to reinforce this false concept, surely it would have died out amongst mankind, but it seems to have grown stronger with each generation and in spite of ours being a so-called ‘scientific’ era the concept of Magic is stronger today than perhaps ever before.

Is Magic ‘Real’?

Whose interest is served by this concept? Why the very one who introduced it to start with- Satan. It is an easy thing for him through

manipulation of mind and body and using of his powers and the powers of his demons to make it appear that ‘Magic’ really works.

By the way, Satan and his demons don’t have any

real ‘magic’ either; they just use trickery,

hypnotism and their own vast knowledge of natural

laws to make it appear that automatic magical

results come from potions, words, talismans

or magic items.

What really is Magic supposed to be anyway?

The dictionary says; "the feigned art of influencing the course of nature or future events by occult means; sorcery; charm."

Even here it is said to be ‘feigned’, that is, it is untrue, but still we humans keep seeking, and hoping and buying the devil’s lies, feeling sure that somewhere, sometime, we will stumble on the real thing and it will be ours to rule the universe with.

What did Satan tell Eve? "Ye shall be as

Gods"

The desire for magic is just the rebellious desire to usurp the place of God that originated in Lucifer. We all have desires to ‘get our own way’ no matter how we do it.

That is natural to the carnal nature.

Magicians’ Mystique

Magicians have held the respect and fear of people down through history from the earliest times. Whether it is people really believing they have the powers claimed, or just watching for entertainment, and trying to figure out ‘how they do it’, the magician creates an almost instinctive awe in humans old or young.

In some primitive societies, those who practiced witchcraft or magic held the people in an icy grasp of fear and manipulation. With the

growing popularity of New Age occult practices, people exalt these ‘witch men’ and Shaman, but if you ask those older folk among the

native peoples, who recall the stories told to them by their grandparents, they will warn you that it was no fun to have to live in

terror of offending these witch-men or the evil spirits they served.

Struggling tribes, people who had a hard enough time just to survive, especially at certain times of the

year, would be forced to burn food offerings to these vengeful spirits or to avoid the very places where food could be easily obtained because of ‘Taboos’. It is never ‘fun’ to be held captive by wicked spirits and those

who serve them.

Anyone who tries to make it appear that he has these powers, whether

‘just for fun’ or for real, is setting himself up as either a god himself or having some way of controlling

God to get what he wants from Him. Such an idea is alien to True

Christianity and so has no part with those who claim to belong to Jesus.

Let’s take a look at a common ‘trick’ we associate with magicians, pulling a live rabbit out of an empty hat. If this were really true, what would it tell you? Why it would say

that the magician has the power to create something out of nothing, and not only something, but a living something! He

has the power to create life.

It is easy to see as you take a good look at MAGICK that it is reflecting the desires of the Universe’s greatest ‘Wannabee’!

Satan pretends to be able to do what he really wishes he could do. Carnal Man, reflecting the same desires as Satan, wants these things to be real also. Both want to be as Gods!

Man cannot create something out of nothing, and he certainly can’t create life. Satan can’t either. He is a

created being himself and as such is limited and dependent on God to even exist.

UNIVERSE’S GREATEST “WANNABEE”

Magic and ‘Luck’One of the branches of ‘magic’ is so

much present with us that it is hard to get it out of our habits and language

and this is the concept of ‘luck’. We say ‘you’re lucky!’ or ‘he had some bad

luck’.

From our earliest years we pick up the idea that certain things are ‘lucky’, such

as four-leaf clovers and rabbits feet. We hear of lucky pennies, keeping

your fingers crossed and not breaking mirrors.

The cross, not originally a symbol of Christianity, is actually the sign of the sun god, used since Babel and so putting crosses on things, crossing the fingers etc. is used to gain power by somehow placating the sun god. It was only after centuries of apostasy it came into ‘Christian’ usage, borrowed from paganism.

Superstition dove-tails into luck so that you can’t tell where one leaves off and the other begins; don’t go under a ladder, step on a crack, spill the salt, black cats (Lucky in the east, unlucky in the west) and so on. It all has its roots in the idea of somehow being able in mystical ways to affect the running of the universe in good or harmful ways. It has roots in ancient Taboos from the witch men of old and also the capriciousness of the pagan devil gods.

It is important for us as true followers of the Living God of heaven, to leave behind us all of these ‘luck’ ideas.

If something joyful happens to us we must praise God, not say, ‘Oh, I guess I was lucky’, that is insulting to God. Nothing happens in the Christian’s life by accident; once we have been truly born again and

are letting Him lead us and guide us, these ideas of blind chance, luck and fortune should no longer be held by us, nor should it be found in

our conversation. We learn to speak of our blessings and God’s providences in our lives; chance and luck has no part. It is only when you start watching out for these expressions that you really come to

see just how interwoven with our habits ‘luck’ concepts are.

Most of the ‘business’ of fortune tellers, witches and other occult practitioners is in dealing with making ‘lucky’ talismans,

numbers, potions, or in some way advising people to allow them to have ‘luck’. Do these things ever work? Yes, Satan can, if it suits his purpose, give information that can cause

people to win in games or betting, he can affect dice and all sorts of things, but remember, his ultimate purpose is

ALWAYS to deceive, enslave, and eventually destroy. The cheese on the mousetrap may taste good to the mouse, but it

isn’t there for the mouse’s well being.

So what is the power behind magic? Well some of it is just an illusion, but remember to create an illusion that something is real when it is not, is a deception, a lie and

so no illusionist can truly serve God in verity.

But there are ‘supernatural’ things that happen, that can’t be denied. So what makes them happen?

What is the Secret Power behind Magic?

Well the answer is ‘who’ makes them happen. First I want to assure you that it isn’t God, as He will never use trickery or deceit and He works in harmony with the laws of nature He established. (More about that later) The way it is done is through Satan and the fallen angels. It is easy for him to create these ‘psychic phenomenon’; he can make something fly through the air by simply carrying it- you can’t see him and it looks like it flies by ‘magic’. He can appear in any shape or form and can impersonate the dead or even imaginary beings; the ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ of paganism are Satan and his angels doing their performances to deceive.

He can make you think you see things that you really don’t through hypnotism and can even cause a group to all ‘see’ something when there is nothing there but the hypnotic power of these fallen angels.

There is no mystery behind magic. Only a very cruel and determined set of invisible (when they want to be) beings that are hell-bent on hurting and destroying everything they can, so as to hurt Jesus, the

real Creator, whom they hate.

They work in various ways depending on the people they

are seeking to deceive.

With isolated, primitive people they just come out more openly with their evil games, and to some of these it is just business as usual to have to placate evil demon spirits and live in fear of taboos, curses and even see demons working and appearing on a daily basis. We may laugh at the superstitious minds of people who avoid certain ‘Taboos’ but if one is not under the protection of God and the heavenly angels, Satan and his demons can harm or even kill those who disobey or offend the witch-men.

Now in our society where we have gotten to think we are so smart, they mostly like to lead us to think that it is some knowledge or power we ourselves are learning to use, or something generated by our brain.

They deceive us into thinking that we have a special talent to perform the occult action, whatever it is, and so they boost us up with pride

and enslave us just as badly as the most primitive savage. Most practitioners of the occult and psychic realm got their start when

someone they went to see in that field told them, "You have special powers and you owe it to society to develop them.".

What a flattering concept! And only too

often successful.

In martial arts and yoga the idea is implanted that there is no limit to how much one can develop his abilities and people going into these start off by natural skills, improving them

by practice and hard work, but at some point the occult becomes mixed in and all these ‘advanced masters’ will

emphasize that physical practice is not as important for development as is meditation. What does this tell you? That the advanced skills in these fields are more occult

than natural and --

the powers are in the demon spirits, not

the person.

One of the things to realize is that the more Satan does for a person, the more he enslaves him and holds him in terror. You can never get on the ‘good side’ of Satan; he doesn’t have one! People have served him faithfully and obediently only to be rewarded by being miserably destroyed as soon as the spirits were tired of them. I read of one man who dedicated his life to setting up a training institute under direction from spirits and as he was climbing one day a boulder fell up the mountain and crushed him! There’s no loyalty in the fallen angels.

But God is always dependable, always faithful and of great compassion and tender mercy. From the womb to old age he cherishes those who follow Him.

Jesus is the Lifegiver!

Satan is that old serpent, the Devil –

who seeks to destroy you!

Continue with Magic Part 2